Consent

Definition of Consent

Consent is the voluntary agreement of an individual to submit to the authority of another or to enter into a cooperative arrangement with others. In political philosophy, consent is the foundational concept of social contract theory, which holds that political authority is legitimate only when it is based on the consent of the governed.

The concept of consent raises several difficult questions. What counts as genuine consent? Must consent be explicit, or can it be tacit — implied by one's actions or continued residence in a territory? Can consent be retroactively withdrawn? Is consent sufficient to justify any form of political authority, or are there limits to what can be legitimately consented to? These questions are central to debates about political obligation, legitimacy, and the limits of state power.

Key Thinkers

John Locke argued that legitimate government is founded on the consent of free and equal individuals, who consent to leave the state of nature and establish political society for the protection of their natural rights. Explicit consent is given through a formal agreement; tacit consent is given by using the roads, enjoying the benefits, or merely residing within the territory of a state. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in The Social Contract, argued that legitimate authority rests on the consent of the people as expressed through the general will, which is not merely the will of all but the shared interest of the community. David Hume offered a powerful critique of consent theory, arguing that nearly all existing governments are founded on conquest and usurpation, not consent, and that the idea of tacit consent is a fiction. John Rawls revived social contract theory in the twentieth century, arguing that the principles of justice are those that free and equal persons would consent to in an original position of fairness.